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Second vice president said 64 percent of people in Afghanistan over the age of 15 are illiterate and that the country needs to fight this phenomenon.

Mohammad Sarwar Danish, Second Vice President said on Thursday that the high illiteracy rate in the country was terrible and that many of the countrys problems are rooted in this.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year, Danish said: 64 percent of people (in Afghanistan) over the age of 15 are illiterate.

He said the country needs to fight this phenomenon but added that people were now sending their children to school.

In addition, despite enormous achievements having been made in the education sector in the past 15 years, there are still problems in the sector, Danish said.

He said this year, one million new students would start school, of which 43 percent of them are girls.

He said however that insecurity is a key challenge for the education sector in the country and because of this, thousands of students drop out annually.

He pointed out that the increase in violence against women could also be linked to extremism and to those who are uneducated.

He claims the lack of proper school buildings in the country is also a problem.

Danish said security forces are determined to re-open schools in insecure parts of the country and also called on the public to help with this.

The new school year officially started on Thursday.

In the meantime, the acting minister of education Asadullah Hanif Balkhi said that millions of children still do not have access to education.

Balkhi said 9.2 million children are in school in Afghanistan of which 39 percent are girls.

This comes after Save the Children showed that more than 1,100 Afghan children a day are expected to drop out of school in 2017, putting them at risk of exploitation.

More than 400,000 children in Afghanistan over 1,100 per day are expected to drop out of school this year due to growing instability and a spike in forced returns from Pakistan, it said in a statement.

The statement said that the stark projection comes on the first day of the new school year in Afghanistan, when almost a third of all children across the country 3.7 million are unable to go to school, leaving them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment by armed groups, trafficking, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.

On the start of Afghanistans school year, Save the Children Country Director in Afghanistan, Ana Locsin, said:

Today should be a happy day in Afghanistan as children go back to class for the first time after a long winter. Instead it is a day cloaked in tragedy for the millions who cant access education and are struggling to survive.

We know that children who arent going to school are at increased risk of early marriage, entering the workforce where they can be exploited, or even recruitment into armed groups or being trafficked. And the longer they are out of the education system, the less likely theyll ever go back, she said.

Last year also saw major flare ups in fighting across the country, killing 923 children and making 2016 the deadliest year on record for Afghan children. This year, the UN predicts that 450,000 Afghans will be displaced due to fighting, while more than 9.3 million people across the country will need urgent humanitarian assistance, including over 1 million children suffering acute malnutrition.

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Illiteracy Rate in Afghanistan is Terrible: Danish - TOLOnews

ISLAMABAD

Britain is being credited with an apparent reduction in political tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan and reopening the border between the two countries.

Pakistans interior minister, Nisar Ali Khan, acknowledged and appreciated the diplomatic intervention Tuesday while addressing a joint news conference in Islamabad with visiting British Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

That facilitation took place through the good offices of her majestys government and as a result of the discussions that took place, you have already seen some positive movements in defusing tensions and doubts between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Khan.

WATCH: Khan on Britain's positive influence

The minister was referring to his governments decision on Monday to open the border crossings with landlocked Afghanistan, a month after they were closed. Islamabad had justified the move by saying Afghan-based militants mounted deadly attacks on Pakistani soil and Pakistan demanded the neighboring country prevent the terrorist activity.

Pakistani soldiers check the identity of citizens returning from Afghanistan at the border town of Chaman, Pakistan, March 7, 2017.

The border closure fueled bilateral tensions until Britain intervened last week and hosted crucial talks between Afghan National Security Advisor Haneef Atmar and Pakistani foreign policy advisory Sartaj Aziz.

British Home Secretary Rudd reiterated her governments resolve to facilitate such meetings in the future for promoting regional peace.

We remain ready to try and facilitate meetings that will help for a peaceful atmosphere to evolve in London or wherever we can. We are friends to Pakistan so whenever we can we will try to facilitate that sort of environment, she said.

WATCH: Rudd on working toward peaceful environment

Rudd also praised the counterterrorism efforts of Pakistani security forces and said Britain would be ready to work closely with Pakistan to help solidify those gains.

I have been impressed by the way that this country has increased its safety record so significantly over the past two years and I hope will be able to help you build on that with some of our ideas and developments, she said.

The closure of the border had caused tens of millions of dollars in losses for traders in both countries. Afghanistan depends on Pakistani ports for its imports and the border closure stranded thousands of shipping containers after having left Karachi.

Meanwhile, the government of Afghanistan has also acknowledged Islamabad has recently taken a series of steps to promote its promised and sincere cooperation to resolve problems between the two countries.

In a statement issued in Kabul, the foreign ministry, without giving details of Pakistani actions, also reported progress on Afghan complaints that the neighboring country differentiates between good and bad Taliban.

Afghanistan has long maintained that Pakistani security forces are taking action against anti-state militants but spare and protect insurgents using Pakistani soil for orchestrating cross-border attacks.

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British Mediation Helps Ease Afghanistan's Tensions with Pakistan - Voice of America

Iran policy has been one of the most divisive foreign policy issues in recent years. The Obama administrations nuclear deal passed Congress without a single Republican vote, and Donald TrumpDonald TrumpUS probes Manaforts banking: report America must improve defense against Russia's information warfare London mayor won't respond to Donald Trump Jr.'s tweet: 'Ive been doing more important things' MORE campaigned on a pledge to get tougher on Tehran. And with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual conference in Washington next week, we may see this issue once again near the top of the agenda as Congress is expected to introduce a slew of new initiatives.

For all the divisions, today it is on Iran policy that Congress can lead, joining forces across parties and even with the new administration.

A Congressional approach to Iran should include several core components.

First, legislators should signal their intent to carefully oversee compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Members disagreed bitterly about the wisdom and terms of the agreement, but a consensus is emerging both on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration that the best course now is to vigorously enforce the deal and hold Iran to account for any violations.

Tillerson: '"I didn't want this job" https://t.co/V14UHlvCKM pic.twitter.com/abNW61Pcwo

Efforts to enforce the agreement should include establishing a bipartisan Congressional panel to oversee JCPOA implementation, ensuring the State Department office responsible for overseeing the agreement remains in place, and holding hearings that will keep the issue on the broader foreign policy agenda. Congress should also deter Iran from cheating by raising the costs of potential violations. This means outlining tough new sanctions, beyond reinstating the previous ones, that would only be triggered if the agreement collapses.

Second, Congress should encourage a new campaign of military and intelligence actions, weapons interdiction, law enforcement activity, and sanctions to blunt Iranian support for surrogates in the Middle East. Limited, low visibility action directed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force and other proxies combined with clear messages about Americas willingness to push back against them can help blunt the expansion of Iranian influence in countries like Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Third, Congress should push the new administration to improve ties with Arab Gulf partners and approve weapons sales and other forms of cooperation with them. The emphasis should be on special operations and low intensity conflict, which is the real challenge Iran poses to them.

"Iran is testing President Trump: Heres what he should do." https://t.co/JzCMsjv9kl pic.twitter.com/1GYtYC276f

The United States should look at establishing a multinational task force with our Gulf partners that would deepen intelligence sharing, training, exercises and joint operations that could be employed as necessary against targets including Iranian proxies, ISIS, and al Qaeda.

Fourth, Congress can promote deeper military and intelligence cooperation with Israel to counter the Iranian challenge. The Israelis intelligence resources are particularly useful, and a high level dialogue should aim to monitor Irans nuclear program while jointly planning for scenarios in which Iran violates the JCPOA. Helping Israel to counter the threat posed on its northern border by Hezbollah should represent another element of this effort.

Finally, Congress can offer leadership on maintaining diplomatic and people-to-people contacts between Iran and the United States. Former Secretary of State John KerryJohn KerryCongress, Trump need a united front to face down Iran One year ago today we declared ISIS atrocities as genocide Trumps realism toward Iran is stabilizing force for Middle East MORE and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif were able to establish a consistent high level communication channel between Iran and the United States for the first time since the Islamic Revolution. Members of Congress can keep that dialogue going by continuing quiet meetings with Iranian counterparts, as many have done in the past.

Importantly, they should also support programs that deepen educational and civil society contacts between Americans and Iranians as well as broadcasting and other information efforts.

By pressing this agenda, Congress can simultaneously send three messages. To Iran, it would signal resolve and a willingness to help Americas friends as they strive to limit Tehrans malign activities in the Middle East. To the Trump administration, it would demonstrate that there are areas in which the legislature and executive can find common ground. And to the American people, it would suggest that Republicans and Democrats can come together around a key foreign policy priority, even in todays divided Congress.

The challenge Iran poses, both to American interests and to what remains of the Middle East order, is urgent. To let it fall prey to partisan bickering would harm our national security. It would also represent a missed opportunity.

Congressional leadership on Iran policy could give both parties and both the legislative and executive branch a political win at a moment when all could use it. Better to face Tehran with a unified front than allow our divisions to create opportunities for it.

Richard Fontaine is the President of the Center for a New American Security where Elizabeth Rosenberg directs the Energy Economics and Security Program and Ilan Goldenberg directs the Middle East Security Program.

The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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Congress, Trump need a united front to face down Iran - The Hill (blog)

Iranian protestors burn an Israeli flag during a demonstration in Tehran on July 25, 2014 to mark the Quds Day. (photo credit:BEHROUZ MEHRI /AFP)

Labor MP Joan Ryan said that Iran is attempting to pose a new threat on Israel by funding Hezbollah terrorists and creating a "second front in southern Syria with which to threaten Israel."

The British parliament member made the comment about Iran's on-going aggression against Israel as part of a parliamentary debate on Iran's influence in the Middle East that took place earlier this week.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Ryan went on to add that Iran's position on Israel is "utterly malign." She explained that Iranian threats on Israel are not just limited to its nuclear activity but that have now received a new form, with Tehran's funding of Hezbollah's military wing serving as an attempt to undermine Israel's security "through support for terrorism."

While most of her speech was related to Iran's affiliation to terror groups in the Middle East and the indirect threat it tries to pose on Israel through these ties, she also mentioned that Iran has a history of calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Ryan, who chairs the Labor Friends of Israel, the parliamentary group that seeks to promote bilateral connections between Britain and Israel, cautioned against Iran's capabilities and their possibly destructive repercussions in the already volatile Middle East. The international nuclear deal had "done nothing to satisfy Iran's appetite to establish regional hegemony in the Middle East," she stated.

In her statements Ryan also urged British as well as European leaders to stand by Israel's side and not to turn a blind eye to Iran's alignment with Hezbollah and other terror groups in the region nor to its more than problematic human rights record. "Iran wants to foment conflict, not peace. It is an oppressive regime at home and abroad."

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British MP: Iran is trying to threaten Israel by establishing a second front in Syria - Jerusalem Post Israel News

The United Nations accuses Israel of being an apartheid state, then quickly retracts itdamage done.

On March 15, the United Nations published a report in which scholarly inquiry claimed to prove with overwhelming evidence that Israel was in fact an apartheid state. It was a breathtaking, heavy claim and one that got the attention of UN Secretary General Antnio Guterres. By Friday, two days later, the report was removed from the UNs official website and disavowed by the secretary general.

Condemnation of the report from the United States and Israel came swiftly. Daniel Danon, Israels UN ambassador, said, The attempt to smear and falsely label the only true democracy in the Middle East by creating a false analogy is despicable and constitutes a blatant lie. Nikki Halley, Americas ambassador, called it anti-Israel propaganda.

And yet, in the two days while the report remained on the UNs website, it caused significant damage.

The Washington Post picked up the story and ran the headline Is Israel an Apartheid State? The answer, apparently dogmatic, was that This UN Report Says Yes. The Independent told its readers that Israel is imposing apartheid regime on Palestinians, according to a UN agency. Al Jazeera gloated that although the report was removed, the questions raised will become impossible to avoid.

UN Under-Secretary General Rima Khalaf, who led the report, resigned after it was disavowed, saying she felt it was her duty to stick by her personal views. We expected, of course, that Israel and its allies would put huge pressure on the secretary general of the UN so that he would disavow the report, she told Agency France-Presse. In recognition of her courage and support of his people, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas awarded her with the Medal of the Highest Honor.

The report was commissioned by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (escwa), which represents 18 countries in the region. To those unfamiliar with the process, it would seem to be very official, weighty, representative of the entire region, and (with the most effective adjective of all) scholarly.

You can find scholarly treatises proving the necessity of using eugenics, that the Holocaust never happened, that the Earth is flat, that communism would have irresistible benefits, or pretty much anything else. Nevertheless, we turn to Commentarys Jonathan S. Tobin for a defence, who argued that:

[The report] dismisses the obvious differences between what happened in South Africawhere a tiny white majority denied all rights to the black majorityand Israel, a Jewish-majority country where the Arab minority has full rights, including suffrage, representation, and equality under the law. It similarly considers irrelevant the fact that the standoff over the disputed territory of the West Bank is the result of Palestinian unwillingness to recognize Israels right to exist within any borders, stubbornly maintained through repeated refusals of peace offers that would have created a Palestinian state.

In reality, the report is merely the opinions of the two people who wrote it. Yes, two people. They also happen to be Americans: Richard Falk, a Princeton law professor emeritus, and Virginia Tilley, from the University of Southern Illinois. Falk is a 9/11 truther and was one of the many duped by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, where he wrote that Khomeinis entourage was uniformly composed of moderate, progressive individuals. Tilleys book The One-State Solution suggests that Israel should give up its commitment to maintaining a Jewish-majority state.

When Democracy Now! interviewed Mr. Falk on the report, it brought up the fact that it had been commissioned by a number of overtly anti-Israel nations:

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The membership of this agency, there are 18 Arab members, a number of whom dont recognize Israel. So, do you think that that might raise questions about the legitimacy of the report?

RICHARD FALK: Well, all thethese Arab members of escwa did was to ask that such a report be prepared. And Virginia Tilley, professor at the University of Southern Illinois, and myself were asked to prepare this report on a contract basis. And there is a kind of disclaimer that the UNthis UN commission made, that the report doesnt necessarily represent even escwas views. It is the views of the two of us who prepared the report.

Thus, what looks like a comprehensive UN report (and dont expect journalists to explain the disclaimer) was instead the escwa appointing two scholars, wholly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, to smear Israel with the accusation of apartheid. Even Falk admits it was just the views of the two of us who prepared it.

In the meantime, prestigious newspapers like the Washington Post run pieces that take the UN report at its word, and Palestinian propagandists gather more ammunition, accusing those who demanded that the report be taken down of covering up the truth.

Tobin continued, predicting the future uses of the report:

[Palestinians] unwillingness to make compromises will only be strengthened by a report that encourages them to regard Israel as having no rights whatsoever. They are likely to make Falks and Tilleys findings the basis for renewed efforts to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court, as well as for renewed provocations in other UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council or even unesco, which in the past year has taken up measures that denied the historical Jewish ties to Jerusalem and some of Judaisms holiest sites.

At the end of the day, a UN report that was pulled wont be the straw that breaks Israels back. The UN, which is not an institution the Trumpet has praised much in the past, did the right thing in withdrawing it from its website. However, the damage is done. Al-Jazeera is right to suggest the false analogy of Israel and South Africa will continue to haunt the Jews. Falk and Tilleys research gives Israels enemies another bullet in their magazine.

In the March issue of the Trumpet magazine, we posed the question, As united Jerusalem turns 50 will it make it to 51? See our answer from our Jerusalem correspondent in City of Pieces.

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Iran's Miracle Economic Recovery - theTrumpet.com